toll roads

What began as a taxpayer revolt like the Boston Tea Party over four years ago known as the San Antonio Toll Party (later going statewide as Texas TURF), will culminate in a decisive meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (or MPO, local board set-up by federal law that allocates highway dollars to local projects) tomorrow […]
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After four and half years of wrangling, congestion weary commuters may finally be close to REAL relief, without slapping TOLLS on existing freeways. Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, the new Chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), moved heaven and earth to see to it 281 north of Loop 1604 and Loop 1604 west (from Military Hwy […]
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It was beautiful to hear a candidate for Texas governor actually take-on the detested and failed policies of Rick Perry in a crowd full of those who make a living off such policies. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison finished off the 12th Annual Transportation and Infrastructure Summit in Irving Friday with a speech outlining her positions […]
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“Transportation should be about people, not projects,” advised Congressman John Carter, who addressed the 12th Annual Transportation and Infrastructure Summit in Irving today. I couldn’t agree more. However, when I asked him afterwards what his position was on toll roads and the sale of our infrastructure to foreign entities through these public private partnerships (or […]
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Literally drowning in debt and losing ridership, the North Texas Tollway Authority, NTTA, just raised its toll rates 32% and baked-in automatic rate hikes every two years thereafter. If the Authority is losing so many riders that it can’t cover its debt obligations, to anyone with common sense, it defies logic that the solution is […]
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Today, the Board of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, a fancy name for the tolling authority out to raid our wallets, voted to pay $70,000 in OUR money to LOSING BIDDERS on the 281/1604 interchange project. Since the interchange (actually only half the interchange will be built now since they plan to toll the northbound […]
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The U.S. House just passed a controversial Cap and Trade energy bill that will cost the average American family $2,000-$3,000 a year in new taxes. Texas Governor Rick Perry came out with a press statement Friday decrying Cap and Trade when he’s the architect of Texas’ own version of a Cap and Trade tax…the sale […]
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Here’s the short list of reasons why toll road policy under Rick Perry has caused a grassroots revolt: higher taxes, greater bureaucracy, and corporatism. When I first learned that TxDOT planned to turn US 281, a freeway already built and paid for, into a tollway, it smelled like a DOUBLE TAX rip-off from the start. […]
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